Bad Lieutenant
Starring: Harvey Keitel
Review Summary
"Writer-director Abel Ferrara makes very strange, uncomfortable films (King of New York, The Addiction, The Funeral). This 1992 movie depicts a corrupt cop, and they don't come any badder than this. Harvey Keitel's lieutenant builds up massive baseball betting debts, hangs out with prostitutes, tries to make off with a kilo of cocaine, shoots up on screen, investigates a grocery store robbery and takes the money, and (in a scene that makes you both laugh and squirm) uses his position to take advantage of teenage girls. He finally encounters a situation he can't understand or handle when a nun is raped on the altar of a church in Spanish Harlem, and forgives her rapists, whom she knows and won't give up to the police. Keitel gives the role his all, in a painful and ugly movie that compels attention but evokes both disgust and stunned admiration."
--David Loftus, Resident Bad Lieutenant Scholar
Overall Review
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Plot
Time/Era of Movie: - 1980's-1999
Probing corruption? - in law enforcement
Crime & Police Story? Yes
Taboo Sex Story? Yes
Crime story: - fighting drug dealers
Kind of story: - rape (yech!)
Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - police/lawman
Age: - 40's-50's
Eccentric: Yes - emotionally unstable - wild
If a man... - average
Unclothed? - Full Frontal
Events of movie makes character more... - sensitive - sad - tougher
Ethnicity/Nationality - White (American)
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - average physique
Main Adversary
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - average physique
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged
Setting
United States Yes
The US: - Northeast
City? Yes
City: - New York - Dirty, grimy (like New York) - dangerous - rude people
Misc setting - church/synagogue
Structural Options
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately messy visuals of dead
Movie makes you feel... - all mixed up
How many deaths in film? - 3-4
Sex/nudity in movie? Yes
What kind of sex: - touching of personal anatomy - seeing breasts - seeing nude male butt - seeing full frontal--women - seeing full frontal--men
Kind of violence: - guns
Unusual forms of death - perforation--bullets
Any profanity? - A huge amnt of foul language
Theme
Alienation Yes
Alienation from: - from humanity
Obsession Yes
Obsession: causing one to - be cruel - put life at risk - commit crimes - act rather bizarrely
Redemption Yes
Shame/seeking redemption in eyes of: - self
Shame/seeking redemption for: - not doing job - hurting another emotionally - hurting another physically - failing to live up to responsibilities - doing a bad thing - failing to treat another right
Delusion Yes
Delusion: - that one is weak - that the world is horrible
Delusion: whose result is - great physical harm to the deluded
Evading Responsibility Yes
Evading responsibility: - mentally--claiming not responsible
Evading responsibility for: - hurting another physically - not doing job - hurting another emotionally - failing to live up to responsibilities - failing to treat another right
